Sky Full of Dreams
by 6GunSally
Summary: The ragged urchin Gyp dreams of one day riding on a dragon, but not everyone can be so entitled. Follow Gyp as he looks in on our favorite dragons and their crews. Will he get the chance to fly? Only time will tell. Minor OCs, save for Gyp (he will be playing a rather major role in this). This is intended as a new perspective of the events of His Majesty's Dragon and beyond.


_**Disclaimer: Several characters as well as this Alternate History were created by Naomi Novik. I'm just a fan, imitating.**_

_**This story is set prior to **__**His Majesty's Dragon**__** and beyond**__**.**_

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**The Foundling**

In which the unfortunate wretch is found.

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He came from the village and no one knew anything else. The boy was seven or eight at the time but he could've passed for five. He was so very small. Only no child of five would've been so bold.

In the village they called him Gyp, because he had dark hair and his rather unkempt condition gave him a swarthy look, and certainly if no one had any other information to contest it, he may as well get took for an Arab.

Gyp wasn't really an Arab, whatever they said. His eyes were gray if you could find them in the shadow of his dirty and unruly dark hair, and somewhere, under the dirt and grime there was a smattering of freckles peppering his nose and cheeks.

Loch Laggan Village didn't have an orphanage, though there was no shortage of unwanted children coming into the little parish. It was a military town so there was plenty of work to be had and the Aerial Corps took advantage of the willingness for it in the village. But Gyp never found a place in a workhouse or factory or tavern, as he wasn't born there nor did he spend his very early days there. Gyp might very well have fallen from the sky with all the care that was paid to his history in the village. Gyp was as stray as a cat and like a cat he'd found a town where enough of a living could be had on the scraps of the Aerial Corps and none were too bothered to look too closely at his being there.

So it happened one day in the very earliest of his history, that the lad—who was very much in love with the dragons that flew overhead of the village—found his way to the gate that kept the public out of Loch Laggan covert. The sentry would find that this skinny little boy—who might or might not have been an Arab—stayed, and no amount of cajoling or threatening could frighten him away. Soon enough the urchin was as normal as the sentry box itself.

It made life harder to have to beg and steal in the village to feed himself and then make his way back, but Gyp thought it was worth the effort. So he came everyday. After a time, the sentries in the box near the gate stopped cajoling and threatening and they told him stories instead—fantastic stories of battles on dragon back and the antics of the dragons themselves. Gyp could see the dragons better from his vantage near the sentry box and if the sentry was willing to tell him a story, all the better.

The dragons all had fantastic names—Celeritas, Levitas, Fluitare, Mortiferus, Immortalis and the like. Gyp never got near enough to see, but the sentries talked about whole crews of men riding on the backs of the dragons, they were so very large. Gyp really wanted to see a dragon up close and maybe ride one too. If he had his own dragon he could leave whenever he wanted for whatever destination he wished.

When the yearning grew too much and Gyp was no longer satisfied sitting outside the gate, he started to figure a way to get inside. Eventually, there came one day Gyp climbed into a wagon making deliveries to the covert and Gyp was never seen near the sentry box again.

Gyp was very much in awe of the military men in the covert and of the dragons. He couldn't come near to the dragons as they were always surrounded by men but just to see them was enough to make him happy. Gyp could get close enough to see their scales and the talons—some so large as to dwarf the men that scrambled over the harnesses of the dragons. The dragon's voices were so loud, echoing through the great chambers of their chests, at first he could not understand them.

Life in the covert was hard for a stray creature like Gyp, there were few enough places to hide at night and less in the day and even fewer chances for him to pilfer food when the mess seemed always busy with aviators and—curiously enough—a large number of children . Gyp soon learned that some of the children there were cadets—some of them smaller than he. There might be hope for him if he were found.

It was not an easy choice for Gyp to make, as he'd never really liked being found—getting oneself found usually meant a scolding or a beating or worse. Gyp couldn't be sure if that would happen, nor could he be sure if they would take him for a cadet. They might—Gyp thought to himself—if he was sure friends with a dragon.

In the end, Gyp put off getting found, and waited until he could find a friendly enough dragon as would like a clever boy like Gyp. He found that many dragons slept in a courtyard of the castle where the stones were so warm they steamed on the colder mornings. There were thatched buildings on the other side, though, where men seemed always to be idling about or working on leathers for the dragon's harnesses. Even at night there were men about, sometimes the officers slept near their dragons. It only took the better part of two days for Gyp to realize that he would never have a chance at meeting a dragon.

It was that second night that Gyp decided to pick one of the officers and follow him—to see if there was some other chance he might get found and put up for a cadet. The fellow he picked was popular, having just returned from some action, and the other officers were always stopping to congratulate him and shake his hand. Certainly he must be a great captain if so many of the others saw fit to slap him on the back and shake his hand. A great captain might need someone to carry his things or shine his boots—and that might be the best way for Gyp to get found. A great captain would have him for a cadet for sure.

It was late on that second night, when no one was around and all the great dragons were asleep and their bellowing sighs filled the night like the crashing of waves, that Gyp saw the 'great captain' steal alone toward the steaming chamber built into the very rock at the heart of Loch Laggan. And Gyp followed him in.

The chamber was dark and empty save for a stuttering candle in the door. The fellow had left his uniform in a pile on the bench and gone into the steams. Gyp had never heard of a bath like this before. A bath was a dreadful thing with cold water and a bucket and the rough bristles of a scrub brush and sometimes even the red faced and stout lady that helped one to it. No, this whole chamber was foreign to Gyp.

Gyp didn't bother to remove his clothes but peered into the steam filled room and gasped at the moisture and the heat.

"Jack, is that you?" the 'great captain' called out.

But Gyp was outside the door and panting, he'd come too far along to give up so easily, and he steeled himself for a second attempt. Gyp pushed the door again and entered. The man he'd followed was sitting farther along the wall, silhouetted in the steam.

"Jack?"

Gyp didn't know what to say so he didn't answer. He chose instead to explore the room; one hand on the stone walls to guide him as he walked slowly along the wall. It was dreadfully hot, and Gyp wondered if this was anything like hell. No one bothered much about Gyp's education—but he'd heard plenty about hell and how he was like to end up there. Well, here he was.

"Is somebody there?"

Gyp ignored him and kept walking. He stumbled slightly in the heat when the curve of wall disappeared from his fingers. It was another doorway. Gyp listened for moment, but no one was coming so he went into the doorway. It was blocked by an iron gate and Gyp, who was very small indeed, poked his head through and then managed to get the rest of himself inside. His ragged shirt caught and tore, but it had been torn already.

Gyp gaped at the sight before him. They were so large and each mounted in it's own little nook. Eggs. Dragon eggs. What better than getting found and being took for a cadet, but getting a dragon of his very own?

Gyp went up to the nearest one and stretched as far as he could and brushed his fingertips against the shell. It was solid, but there was a bit of give, like it was made of leather. The egg alone was double Gyp's weight or more, and he frowned up at it. Gyp wondered how long he'd have to wait for the egg to hatch. Soon visions of him up high on his very own dragon made up his mind for him and he searched for a ledge or crevice he could hide until the egg hatched.

Gyp was interrupted by the scrape of the iron gate. The 'great captain' was standing there naked as a baby and red like one too.

"What are you doing?"

"Ain't doing nothing," Gyp said. He stood his ground defiantly.

The 'great captain' was a thin young man and his dark hair hung loose and wet and some of it stuck to his face. He eyed Gyp suspiciously and Gyp decided then that it was better he didn't ask if the man would make him a cadet. Gyp took one last longing look at the eggs and then he bolted.

It was the only chance he had, so he took it. But the 'captain' grabbed him and lifted him up and though Gyp struggled and kicked there was no breaking free of that grip. In the close heat and darkness Gyp punched and kicked futilely at his captor. He started to scream but the man put a hand over his face, so Gyp bit the hand and the man dropped him on wet stone floor and cursed.

The man caught him up just on the other side of the iron gate. The steam was suffocating and Gyp quite forgot his struggle and slumped into his captor's cruel embrace.

Gyp awoke to the sprinkling of cold water on his face. The man—who had wrapped his loins with some linen—had a bowl in his hand and was peering very close at the boy's face with remorse and much agitation.

"Thank Jesus and Mary," the man said, when Gyp stirred, "I thought I'd killed you."

"No," Gyp said, "Ain't dead. Though fer all th' trouble cain ya make me a dragon rider, sair?"

"What?"

"Dragon. I want ter ride a dragon, sair."

The man seemed flustered by the request, but Gyp never got an answer from him as the door opened and the cold night air blew in. It was another man in uniform.

"Not now Jack," Gyp's captor hissed at the newcomer and waved him away emphatically. The other made as if to protest but he was cut off with a very scandalous, "I'll explain later."

When they were alone, the man glared sternly at Gyp, "Who are you?"

"I'm jus' Gyp," the boy said, "I'm come ter ride dragons."

"You have, have you?" the man said his tone rising with condescension, "How did you get here?"

Gyp glared back at him, "I came in the cart—couple 'o days back."

"Why?"

Gyp rolled his eyes, "So I could ride a dragon."

"Are you from the village?"

"No," Gyp said and the man looked surprised at this, "tho' I don' know where I were before I came to it, sair."

"Are you really a Gypsie?"

"Och! No sair, don' ya think I'd be staying with them if I were a proper Gypsie? Them what live in Loch Laggan call me Gypsie, tho'."

"So, what about your family?"

"Don't got any, sair," Gyp looked at the now frowning young man.

"None at all? How about before you came to the village? Where were you before that?"

"Don't know, sair," Gyp's brow furrowed as he paused to think, "It were a big place, sair. With stone roads."

"Do you mean Edinburgh?" The young man looked incredulous, "Perhaps your family is there?"

"No. I don't got none," Gyp said, "I suppose I were lost a long time ago."

"Lost? I dare say you are very lost. But now that someone's found you, we must do something with you."

"Will you make me a dragon captain?"

"Certainly not, but it's not up to me is it?"

"Isn't it, sair?"

"No, I'm just here for a transfer. I don't decide anything what goes on here. But I'll put you up for the night, and in the morning after they've given you something to eat, they'll figure out what to do with you."

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**A/N:** _Something different. The OC is meant to provide a bit of "outside looking in" perspective. Can anyone guess who Gyp ran into in the bath? Thanks again for reading._


End file.
